This Might Hurt
by XOXOSG
Summary: Lydia Martin just got out of a relationship to her former high school sweetheart, but she is surprisingly excited to see what her options are. These options suddenly being ones she never expected herself to have. Eventual Stydia/Martinski. CURRENTLY ON HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
1. One

**Author's Note: A new story I'm trying to write that will be somewhat canon to the events of season three. This is the first chapter just a little bit before season three begins to give you an idea of the character's head a little bit. And obviously it won't be completely canon because if the pairing isn't then it will be a bit off but other than that it should be similar. Please let me know what you think so far and what you want to see happen. And don't worry there shall be Stydia to come, promise. Also please ignore it's stupidity, my brain is just not working how I want right now and its seems nothing is coming out right how I want it so please forgive me. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.**

She promised herself that she wouldn't tell anyone, even if they asked. It almost felt like a weakness to admit, in reality it was probably a strength. She would never admit to anyone that relief was probably what she felt the most at this moment. Yes she loved him, and he was a good man deep down and she was probably one of the few people that got to see that side of him. But to most people he just came off as rude, entitled, expectant, selfish, and many other adjectives that generally had a negative connotation. So as much as she loved him and cared about him, she was a little excited he was leaving. She knew she shouldn't be because it wasn't like he was going on vacation, he was moving halfway across the world. It felt like she was pushing him out the door, she just hoped that her future self wouldn't be mad for not cherishing time. But she was ready. Ready to have a weight lifted off of her shoulder, and ready to have freewill again.

"Take care of yourself." She mumbled robotically into his ear as she stood outside of the front of the nearest airport. To onlookers and to him it probably looked like a heartfelt goodbye but she felt absent, just like she was going through the motions.

"You too, stay safe. Seriously, if you need me, I'll be back here as soon as I can." He told her. She felt so empty about it, and guilty that she didn't feel guilty about his departure. He loved her more now than he probably ever had but she just didn't feel anything anymore. His arms were still wrapped around her in such a loving way, it made her sick to be excited.

"Alright, I'll remember that." She forced a small laugh; Beacon Hills was going to be a little bit scarier with no one there to protect her unconditionally.

"Well I guess this is it..." He said letting go of the hug and grabbing her by the arms so he could look at her straight on.

"I guess it is. Well…goodbye Jackson." Before she could comprehend what she was really saying, he grabbed the side of her face and kissed her passionately. She let him and only put in enough effort to make it seem like she meant the action.

"Goodbye Lyd." She cringed at him calling her that. He began walking towards the doors in a backwards fashion and waving. "I love you!" He called out before entering the building with his bags in tow. Luckily he was inside and hopefully he didn't see her not respond with the same words.

She turned on her heel and strolled over to the driver's side of her car. After starting the car she pulled down the sun visor and looked in the small mirror and looked herself over. She looked different to herself. She looked like a girl who wasn't stressed and tired all the time. She knew she wouldn't have to keep up with a high maintenance boyfriend who turned into a wolf anymore. Lydia Martin was single again and she finally felt like herself for the first time in a few months. She had been with Jackson so long she wondered what it would be like to be with someone else, it excited her. She was glad she ended things in an amicable way; she knew he still loved her. She loved him too, but just not in the same way. Lydia was just happy to be herself. Lydia Martin felt free.


	2. Two

**Author's Note: New chapter, just wanted you guys to keep in mind that even though this is supposed to be canon to the current season, some things will be a tad different then they are on the show. Hope you guys are enjoying it so far, I love writing Lydia, she's so dynamic and amazing. Might do Stiles' perspective next time. And thank you guys so much for the reviews already, love getting them! Also I'm working on an update for "The Collection". J**

Now it was the end of summer and getting close to the beginning of the school year. Jackson had left about a week or so ago and Lydia was getting by without him. It was hard though, she had mostly stayed at home for the week since she really didn't have anyone else to spend time with. It was the Saturday before the first day of school and Lydia was doing her best to pick out an outfit for the first day, as she did every year, but of course she had nothing to wear and needed to go shopping before the first day to pick something out. It didn't matter that she lived in a small town filled with supernatural beings; she had to look her best. And since everyone still thought she was crazy, she really needed an outfit that just proved to everyone that she had it all together. But her popularity was waning, due to the events involving Peter Hale. She knew she wasn't crazy, but sometimes it was hard to believe she wasn't when everyone else sure thought so.

She sighed at herself in the mirror while she had on her fiftieth outfit of the night. She had been pairing skirts, blazers, blouses and dresses when Allison texted her. The message read:

_Allison Argent: Back in Beacon Hills! _To which Lydia responded promptly with relief.

_Lydia Martin: Thank God. I need to go shopping ASAP, I'll pick you up tomorrow._ Lydia's fingers flew over the keyboard in a rush, thankful that her best friend was finally back from her European vacation, and that she finally had someone to talk to again that wasn't just her "boyfriend". Although she did remember sitting on the sidelines at a few pack meetings with Jackson, and Stiles Stilinski had always been there to talk to and make her laugh. To her surprise she really had become friends with Stiles and most of the wolf pack over the past year but she still wished Allison could have been around during the summer.

Lydia decided it would just be best to buy a whole new outfit for the first day instead of destroying her closet anymore. So she changed into one of her lacy nightgowns, washed her face, and put her closet back in order. She then unwillingly climbed into bed. Her nightmares had returned since Jackson left. They weren't near as intense as they were before, but it was enough to not make her want to fall asleep. It was really more annoying to her than scary, but she feared if they progressed she would have to ask for help. And swallowing her pride and asking for help was not something that Lydia made a habit of doing. Luckily she managed to fall asleep and have a nightmare free sleep, something she was very thankful for.

She woke up much later than she usually did, but she didn't mind sleeping in when her mind wasn't running ramped within her dreams. She was actually grateful to have a full night's sleep that wasn't drug induced and infested with supernatural creatures, so she wasn't all that upset. It was already midday when Lydia dragged herself into her pretty pink bathroom and took her shower. She let the hot water run down her pale skin, not minding the heat. It felt good on her skin, reliving any slight aches she had. She washed her hair with her special salon shampoo and conditioner. Shaved with her impossible to find, shaving gel. Then she used a soft loofa to cleanse her body with the perfumed body wash she bought, she was extra careful when she ran it over her scar on her side. It didn't hurt anymore, but if she touched it the wrong way or something brushed up against it, it became irritated. It was a reminder of all she had been through over the past year, healed and durable, yet still sensitive and vulnerable at the same time. So yes even though she was done having feelings for Jackson that went past friendship, it still was hard not having someone there for her, no matter how they treated her. She let the water cleanse her of the grime and sweat that had collected over the previous day and night (which wasn't much, she was Lydia Martin, she didn't sweat…) as well as any reservations she had about Jackson leaving. It was junior year; it was finally her time to be herself again.

Lydia shut the water off and wrapped herself in one of her favorite, big, fluffy, pale pink, towel, squeezed any excess water out of her hair, and stepped out of the stall and into a pair of slippers. She padded back into her bedroom and pet a sleeping Prada on the head before sitting down at her vanity crowded in perfume bottles and other cosmetic products. Sighing, she stared at herself in the mirror. Surprisingly, and for the first time in a while, she didn't hate what she saw. The girl in the mirror didn't looked sleep deprived, exhausted, annoyed, stressed, or anything like that. It's like her body knew a major stress was gone in her life and she was ready to move on. She looked…happier. Maybe Jackson was the dead weight in her life, instead of the other way around.

Of course her face wasn't perfect, so she did her make-up, a routine she managed to perfect when she was in middle school. Then she moved on to her outfit, putting on a dress and tights of course. Then she found a pair of shoes and bag that corresponded to her outfit correctly and got together everything she would need for her night out shopping with Allison. Finally she moved on to her hair, and decided to put it up for something different. Once she was done getting ready she walked downstairs in her empty house and made herself a salad for a late lunch and watched a "Say Yes to the Dress" marathon on TV until she decided it was a reasonable time to pick up her best friend.

Lydia pulled up to her friend's new house, just as the sun was setting. As annoyed she had been that Allison was away for the summer, she was just glad she actually decided to come back to Beacon Hills. Lydia didn't know if she would stay if she had the chance to move across the world from the supernatural capital of northern California. Once Lydia parked the car she walked up to the front door, but before she could knock properly, Allison's father answered.

"Hello Mr. Argent." Lydia smiled politely.

"Hello Lydia, how are you?"

"I'm fantastic. How was your summer?" Lydia asked as she saw Allison coming down the stairs, with a new haircut.

"It was nice, we had a great time. It felt good to get away." Lydia nodded, knowing exactly what he meant.

"Lydia, it's so good to see you!" Allison smiled, giving her a quick, friendly hug.

"You too, I'm so glad you back." Lydia was being truthful; Allison was really the only genuine female friend that Lydia had.

"You ready to go?" Allison asked, stepping out of the embrace. Lydia nodded.

"It was nice seeing you Mr. Argent, see you around." Lydia called out as she gave a backward wave to Allison's father. He waved back politely in response before closing the door.

On the way to the mall both avoided talk about ex-boyfriends because each of them knew the other probably wasn't up for it being the first conversation they had. Probably on the way home the curiosity would probably get the better of them. On the way there Allison mostly delved into all of the things she did while in Europe and Lydia expressed her jealousy. Once they got to the mall they ate dinner in the food court and Lydia was able to find an outfit for the first day of school. On the way home both were surprisingly quiet as they listened to a pop song playing on the radio. When they came up upon a stoplight Lydia couldn't take it any longer and asked Allison about Scott. She danced around the question and trailed off into another story about Europe as she looked straight ahead. Lydia rolled her eyes and as she did so she saw a blue Jeep to her left.

It was Stiles and Scott, they were staring at Lydia and Allison, and Scott was yelling something at Scott. Allison turned in time to see them.

"Oh my god, Lydia. Drive! Go! Do something!" Allison yelled at her friend as she slid as far down in the seat as she could possibly go.

"I can't, we're at a red light." Lydia told her. Just as she did so the light turned green and she pushed the pedal hard and took off down the straight road just as Stiles waved at them. "There happy?" Lydia asked once they were a good distance away from the infamous Jeep. Lydia looked in her mirror and saw that Stiles and Scott had abruptly stopped the vehicle.

"What the hell?" Allison asked rhetorically. "Why did they stop?"

"God who knows."

"Maybe we should stop." Allison suggested, and Lydia rolled her eyes once again and stopped her blue car.

"Ok we stopped, now what do you propose we do?" Lydia asked, turned in her seat looking at the Jeep, Allison doing the same thing.

"Well we co…" Before Allison could finish her sentence glass was suddenly flying into their faces. An animal's legs we're flailing around causing having.

"AHHHHHH" Collective screams were being uttered from the two girl's mouths as they clawed their way to the door handles and climbed out of the car. Before Lydia could process what was happening, Stiles was grabbing her hand helping her out.

"Lydia! Lydia! Are you ok? Are you alright?" They were now behind the car and Stiles was looking right into her eyes. She was very far from being ok. One of his hands was on her arm trying to steady her and keep her calm. Surprisingly it was helping slightly.

"No, what the HELL just happened?" She asked frantically. Scott was standing next to Allison who looked frightened. "How does that happen?"

"Maybe it was scared?" Allison asked, as Scott touched its neck. Lydia gulped and positioned herself a little closer to Stiles without even thinking, feeling slightly safer being closer to someone of the male gender at least. His hand even lingered slightly at her lower back, touching it in the slightest and lightest way that she almost didn't even notice. And she did notice but for some reason it only made her feel the slightest bit of comfort as she stared at a deer that just rammed itself into her blue Toyota trying to hold in her frightened tears.

"More like terrified." Scott determined with this werewolf abilities.

**AN: Ok I know there could have been more Styida, but this is what I have for now and there will be more, promise! Plus its really easy to write canon now that they actually have had a lot of scenes together. I hope it becomes canon, I don't want Lydia with a twin. **


	3. Three

**Author's Note: This chapter turned out to be longer than expected, hope everyone likes it! Please review, follow, favorite, etc.! I always like knowing what you guys think! New chapter should be up soon, it probably won't be as long as this one but it will be the one about the birds and the window (More Stydia there!). I intended to make it a part of this chapter but this one kind of wrote itself.**

The sheriff and his team showed up within ten minutes of the deer running full speed into Lydia Martin's windshield. He of course, cringed and rolled his eyes when he saw the same group of teenagers at the scene of the accident. Lydia decided it had to look pretty bad that Stiles was always where the trouble was at. She knew it looked bad because they all always seemed to be where trouble had just occurred but luckily this time it was just a deer that ran into a windshield, a pretty common occurrence in areas near wildlife. For once an encounter with the local police force wasn't all that obscure. Everyone gave a brief statement to the police and a tow truck took Lydia's car to a local auto shop to have the windshield replaced.

"Do you guys need a ride?" Stiles asked gesturing to his to his Jeep, Scott's eyes practically bugged out of his eyes imagining being in the same vehicle as Allison. Luckily for him Allison shook her head "no".

"No, my dad's on his way. He's here now actually. Thanks though." She said giving a polite wave and walking to her father's vehicle.

"Um actually, I could use one if you don't mind." Was she crazy? Of course he didn't mind. But he told himself to play it cool, not to make a big deal about it.

"Yeah…I can take you home."

"I mean you don't have to." She spoke softly as she clutched a shopping bag in her hand.

"Seriously I don't mind, I'll even make Scott sit in the back." He smirked as they walked over to the Jeep. Scott, overhearing already knew Stiles was going to make him sit in the (lack of a) backseat and climbed in.

"Alright, sounds good." She smiled at him. He walked over to the passenger's seat and took the bag out of her hand, opened the door for her, and then tossed the bag in the back with Scott. She then hoisted herself up into the passenger seat and he walked over to his side and put the keys in the ignition and drove in the direction of her house, it would be a short drive.

"Your hair looks longer." She commented, she probably hadn't seen him since a week or so before Jackson left, it hadn't been its normal buzzed short, but it wasn't quite as long as it currently was. She approved of it being longer, she thought it made him look more mature.

"Oh…uh…yeah, I'm…trying to growing it out. I don't know if I like it though. I might just cut it all off again."

"No, don't. It looks good, makes you look older. In a good way." She sighed at the awkwardness in the conversation. Why did she care anyways it was just Stiles…and Scott. She didn't know what was going on but something felt different. She was nervous, and she was rarely nervous. Usually Lydia was as confident and as cool as a cucumber but she was struggling for a conversation at the moment.

"Oh ok…maybe I'll keep it then." She nodded her head.

"So where were you guys at tonight?"

"Scott was trying to get a tattoo."

"Trying?" Lydia inquired, raising her eyebrow and turning around to look at Scott.

"Well I got the tattoo but it healed itself." Scott explained. "So you can't see it anymore."

"Werewolf problems. It must be tough."

"It is, you don't even know the half of it. I paid a lot to get it done. I was thinking maybe Derek could help though, he has one." Lydia cringed a little at the word "Derek", more because of his uncle, Peter. He had caused some serious issues for Lydia last spring; it still made her uncomfortable to think about. And some of the times when Jackson had made her go to pack meetings. But Stiles had always been there to talk to, so it hadn't been too bad. But sometimes just the thought of Peter Hale made her sick and/or anxious.

"Yeah sounds like a great idea. I'm sure Derek would love to give you a tattoo. Hell maybe he could even open up his own werewolf tattoo parlor." Stiles' sarcasm seethed. Lydia giggled and Scott rolled his eyes because he knew his friend was probably right, Derek wasn't usually a chipper guy up for helping others with relatively small issues.

Stiles pulled up Lydia's driveway and she cringed at the thought of being alone in the house, but tonight was one of the few nights her mom was home. She knew because she had called her after the deer ran into her car. Lydia really used to enjoy having the house to herself before finding out about the creatures living in her town and the threats they posed. She didn't even hate it now, it wasn't bad if she didn't think about what could be out there. And at least she knew she could call someone for help if she needed them. She would hate to be _that girl_ but if she had to be, she would.

"Here, let me walk you to the door." Stiles offered, getting out of the Jeep and walking to the passenger door and took her hand as she made the jump from the vehicle to the ground.

"Thanks." He walked her up to her porch with her and waited until she unlocked the door and turned on a light. "Thanks again for taking me home; you really didn't have to do that." She smiled at him. She noticed herself standing awfully close to him.

"Sure, anytime. Really, I mean it. If you need anything just call me and I'll be there."

"Ok well, I appreciated that a lot Stiles." She said lightly touching his shoulder. Oh god that was one of her flirting techniques, what was she doing?

"Well, stay safe. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow." He said as she stepped into her house and shut the door. She went into the living room and took her shoes off; a minute or two later there was a knock at the front door. Her mom must have been in her bedroom because she made no attempt to answer it. She rolled her eyes but she was a bit nervous. Answering doors was not something she was fond of doing at night, especially this close to a full moon.

"What do you wan…" She said in a voice laced with annoyance. "Oh. Stiles."

"You left your bag in my Jeep, I thought you might want it." He said handing her the bag.

"Oh. Well thank you." She said grabbing the bag from him. As she did so her fingers brushed against his and she blushed ever so slightly, she looked at him. He was also blushing.

"You're welcome. Goodnight Lydia."

"Goodnight Stiles." She replied as he walked down her porch steps and she closed the door for the final time that night, using all three locks.

Lydia went to sleep with a little less calamity then she had the night before. But she wasn't complaining, one night of peaceful sleep was better than none. This night though her dreams were a tad more vivid, they were stupid and embarrassing as most peoples are, they weren't the usually nightly nightmares. She couldn't remember exactly what happened, she was pretty sure there were some deer running around but she did remember seeing Stiles Stilinski in her dream. Lydia couldn't remember why he was there or what he was doing but she did know he was there, and for some reason, even in her dream it made her feel a little bit more comfortable.

Lydia woke up to her alarm going off, followed by a text Allison sent her, telling her she would be picking her up for school in an hour and a half. Lydia threw her covers off of her body and began her morning school day routine. Shower, make up, get dressed, do hair, eat breakfast while checking and updating all of her social networks on her smartphone. As annoyed as Lydia was that a feral deer had run into her windshield and she didn't have a car to drive, she was in a surprisingly good mood. She tried to think of a reason as to why the whole time she was getting ready. Was it her new outfit? No, that was great and all but great new outfits never put her in _this_ good of a mood that only happened when she got a new wardrobe. She was still racking her brain as she descended the stairs in her new outfit and turned to enter the kitchen. There was a note on the counter and Prada was clawing at the door in attempt to be let outside to relieve herself. Lydia picked up the note, unlocked the door, and let Prada out.

_Lydia, _

_ Good luck on your first day of school, sorry I couldn't be there. Big things going on at work, I'll be out of town for the week. I'm going to stop by the auto shop where your car is and get everything sorted out and paid for before I leave town. I'll have them call you when it's done. I love you very much, have a great first week and stay out of trouble._

_ Mom_

Lydia scoffed. She never got in serious trouble, but maybe her mom had meant something different. She appreciated her mother's gesture of the note but it wasn't the same thing as actually having her mother there for her. But Lydia would have to deal with it, after all she was the one who wished all those years ago that her parents would leave her alone for once. She guessed the Universe had listened to her request for once and decided to give her exactly what she asked for in the sixth grade. Didn't the Universe understand that eleven year olds have no idea what they truly want? Just as Lydia finished reading the letter, Prada scampered back into the house and Lydia smirked, not even her mother and father's lack of attention could bring her down from whatever good mood she was currently in.

Lydia closed the door behind her dog and walked over to the cabinet and pulled herself down a juice glass, and grabbed a spoon from the utensil drawer. She went to the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice and a package of yogurt. While Lydia ate her breakfast she silently thought to herself and tried to imagine why in God's name she was so happy. Suddenly she realized, and she tried to push the thought out of her brain. She hadn't thought of it before because she didn't want to. She definitely didn't want to admit, even to herself, that a certain friend of a werewolf with new long hair had been the reason for her sudden exponential mood change. She shook her head, barley believing her theory. Lydia finished her breakfast and looked at the clock and knew that Allison would be here in a matter of minutes. She threw her yogurt in the trash can under the sink, put her glass in the sink, and walked upstairs, checked to make sure her make-up was still in place (which of course, it was) and grabbed her bag that housed all of her school supplies. Allison beeped her horn, just as Lydia was stepping out of her front door and locking it behind her.

"So did you get home without any deer mauling your SUV?" Lydia asked as she buckled her seatbelt and Allison proceeded to descend the long driveway.

"Yeah we made it home alright. You?" Allison inquired, eyes focused on the road.

"Yes, I made it home safely."

"That was nice of Stiles to take you home last night." Lydia's stomach lurched at the mention of his name and she rolled her eyes at her own body's reaction to Stiles and his name being uttered.

"Oh yeah…I'm sure he didn't mind." Lydia casually brushed it off. "So when do you think you're going to get to talk to Scott?" She asked, changing the subject and hoping Allison would take the bait.

"I don't know. I was planning on asking him today if we could when he has time."

"Good, you guys need to get things sorted out. It doesn't feel right if you and Scott aren't together. You guys were like made for each other, like the perfect combination."

"I don't know about that." She smirked slightly. "I mean things didn't end on a good note exactly. I'm okay with whatever is best for the two of us. I miss him but I would only get back with him if we were both comfortable and in good places."

"Yeah but I mean, I hope you guys get back together. Something needs to get back to normal in this town." Allison laughed after Lydia spoke. "What? What's so funny, Allison?" She spoke Allison's name in her old self's annoyed voice that she remembered using once at Macy's before buying dresses for winter formal. Lydia didn't like people laughing without knowing what it was about.

"Ha…well…I was just thinking, you know what? Never mind." She shook her head and laughed at whatever thought she was having.

"No, seriously what?" Lydia asked as she took out a tube of lip stick from her bag and reapplied while looking in the sun visor's mirror.

"No really, it doesn't matter. Forget I mentioned it."

"Allison" Lydia said in her nasally, snooty voice looking straight at her friend "Tell me."

"I was just going to say it would be really fun if me and Scott got back together, if I don't know maybe you and Stiles got together." Allison bit her lip in anticipation as to what Lydia might say.

"Well…that would never happen." Lydia said, blushing lightly and returning to applying her lipstick. She cursed herself. Did Allison know the feelings she was experiencing? She seriously couldn't recall telling her anything about him. She couldn't even remember telling herself about her newfound feelings.

"I don't know, if I didn't know any better I'd say you're warming up to him. He did drive you home last night."

"We're just…friends." That word would have been almost impossible to say in reference to Stiles a year ago.

"It's a step in the right direction." Allison smiled, it really would be perfect if she got back together with Scott and Lydia got with Stiles. Their double dates could be legitimate and not one sided. Considering Lydia barley even registered who Stiles was a year ago and now she was getting rides from him made Allison feel like they had a chance. Allison wanted them to be together just as much as Stiles did (but tried to repress, although Stiles had confided in both Allison and Scott how much he really did care for Lydia.) and she thought her friend deserved someone who would treat her like the princess she was. Allison hoped that if they got together that her and Scott did too. The plan wouldn't work out as well if one couple was actually together and the other wasn't.

"I don't know what you are thinking Allison, but Stiles is just a… friend." Lydia said the last part with a sigh as they pulled into a parking spot and Scott and Stiles walked right in front of the car and into the school.

"Just friends usually don't sigh whimsically when the other walks by." Allison whispered to Lydia, leaning over the center console, Lydia just staring straight ahead. "I'm on to you." She then got out of the car and Lydia exited the passenger side in a big huff. Allison must have sharpened her intuitive skills over the summer.


	4. Four

**Author's Note: Damn, all of that writing for the last chapter and I forgot to have Prada bite Lydia. Please forgive me and just assume it happened, if that's alright with you. Thanks for reading, and hope you like this chapter. And its canon so somethings will be exactly like the show but others won't or I might change a few words in the dialogue. I don't know if I should admit this (it will show how many times I watched the clip) but me writing the dialogue is basically all from memory. Eek. Well enjoy.**

Lydia and Allison stepped in to the school and went straight to their homerooms to get their schedules for the fall and their locker assignment. All went well and the stopped at their lockers to make sure the combinations worked before heading off to their English class.

"Is it me or do freshman get better looking each year?" Lydia asked, gazing around the hallways at all of the people passing by.

"Trust me…it's just you." Allison said, shutting the locker and began walking toward their next class. Lydia panicked for a split second, now she thought freshman were good looking? This whole Stiles thing was sending Lydia for a loop. With each minute that passed, she realized she was growing even more accustom to the idea of liking him, as much as she tried to reject it. She allowed herself to admit (to herself only for the time being) that maybe she did have a bit of a crush on Stiles. And she was allowed to think he was cute but not allowed to lower her standards for other things, such as freshman _boys_.

"Alright perhaps I had a lapse of judgment." Lydia admitted catching up to her friend.

"Clearly." Allison giggled as they turned into the English classroom. Lydia saw two empty seats near Stiles. She sighed; she wanted to sit there because Allison would be sitting in front of her, but also (most of her hated to admit still) because it was next to Stiles. She was in the between the first two stages of crushing. The stages that were denying that it even existed and realization/wanting to talk to the person or be close to them. The decision was a no brainer and she sauntered over to the desk and placed her notebooks on top of it and turned to realize that another classmate had taken the seat intended for Allison. Lydia's mouth opened slightly in annoyance and Allison looked heartbroken knowing the only other empty seat was in front of her ex-boyfriend. She knew Allison wanted to talk to him, but on her terms not "this was the only seat left". But she took it well, swallowed her pride and sat down. Lydia sat down and tried to concentrate on looking forward but she secretly was looking at Sties through the corner of her eye. She saw him give Scott a thumbs up and wondered if it was in response to her seat choice or Allison's lack of one.

Suddenly everyone's phones went off; it was a text from their new English teacher. She walked in after and gave big speech about the book they were supposed to have read over summer break. Before she had begun it Scott had managed to make an excuse and leave school for the day. She wondered for a second what it could be and then she remembered it probably had something to do with his werewolf status. After he left and Ms. Blake was done with her speech she asked them to hand in their essays on the book and passed out a worksheet that pertained to it.

"Hey, what's that? Is that from the accident?" Stiles whispered to Lydia, causing her to lightly jump before she turned to look at him. She saw his paper, it was filled in, he must have actually read the book like her. Why was he looking at her and her _leg_ though? Her legs did look rather good in the dress she was wearing, but that was beside the point. Oh right, crush since the third grade, she reminded herself.

"Oh. No, Prada bit me this morning." She told him, answering the last question on her worksheet. He raised his eyebrows and squinted his eyes a bit to get a better look.

"Your dog?" He sounded surprised, she was too Prada never bit her, even when she was a teething puppy.

"No, my designer handbag." Oh, damn it, was that mean? She wondered frantically to herself as his eyebrows furrowed. Luckily he didn't look genuinely offended; after all he was the king of sarcasm in Beacon Hills. It wasn't actually all that easy for Lydia to not be snarky, her intelligence generally made her be annoyed with stupid remarks. She knew he didn't mean to make a dumb remark, she knew he just needed to know all of the facts. "Yes, my dog."

"Well has she ever bitten you before?" He looked concerned for her, she could feel it in the words he was saying and how he said it.

"No" she shook her head "never actually, not even when she was a puppy." He looked like he was mulling over what she had just said. She tried to look like she was still busy with her worksheet but she was interested in what was saying. It would be nice to have a theory about what was happening from someone who actually had an IQ average somewhat close to hers.

"Ok what if it's like the same thing as the deer? You know how animals start acting weird like right before an earthquake or natural disaster?"

"Meaning what? There's going to be an earthquake?"

"Something. Maybe it means something's coming. Something bad." His voice became more serious when he uttered the last two words.

"It was a deer and a dog. What's that thing you say about threes? Once…twice."

BOOM! Lydia jumped and looked up at the window as did the rest of the class. A bird had flown face first into the glass windows, leaving a splatter of blood and a thin crack. Ms. Blake put down the piece of chalk she was using and walked towards the window, observing the damage. Lydia turned to look at Stiles for a brief moment, maybe he could offer some insight seeing as his best friend was a werewolf. Confusion littered his face as well, so instead they shared a brief second of concern. When they turned back to the window, at least a hundred and fifty more birds were flying towards the building. When the teacher turned back to the room of students another bird flew straight into the window, followed by more and more. This time breaking the glass.

"GET DOWN! GET DOWN!" Ms. Blake shouted. Everyone did as she said and frantically got ducked and got to the floor and under desks as quickly as possible.

"Lydia." Stiles muttered as she quickly got to the floor. He was ducking his head as she crawled down onto the floor, trying her best to get coverage from the flying fowl in the room. She put her arms over her head. Meanwhile Stiles moved her desk out of the way and placed his arms around her small, crouched body. Without even thinking she moved so he could cover her better. He had one hand on the ground to steady himself, which she had wrapped a hand around, and the other around her waist. She didn't care if he was some un-supernatural, completely normal human being, she wouldn't have felt any safer than she did right there. Because she knew he wouldn't have done something like that unless he really truly cared for her.

They managed to get themselves somewhat under a desk and they watched as classmates were being pecked and prodded by the black birds. Allison was under a desk next to them, hands over her head as well as many others. After a few moments the birds began falling, dropping dead. After they were sure the birds were dead and not going to attack them again the students began to come out from their crummy hiding spots. Stiles put his hand on the desk, allowing himself to come up and take a look around.

He placed his hand lightly on Lydia's back, letting her know it was clear. She came up to a crouching position, eye to eye with him. He looked at her with concern, their faces were so close together, Lydia didn't know what to say. She tried to convey a "thank you" with her eyes hoping he understood, she was a bit to shaken to say anything at the moment. But her lips felt like magnetized to his in that brief moment. And the way he was looking at her… She knew then she was in trouble.

"Is everyone alight?" The principal asked, as he barged in the room with the teacher from the next classroom over. Everyone nodded their head, stunned. A few people were sent to the nurse but for the most part Ms. Blake just tried to explain the situation as best she could, clearly frazzled by what had just happened. "The sheriff's on his way." He told the classroom, no one really felt less stressed, especially knowing they would have to wait around and give statements most likely. Allison, Stiles, and Lydia all shared looks of confusion and annoyance knowing this probably had something to do with their werewolf friends.

**AN: New chapter up soon hopefully! **


	5. Five

**Author's Note: This won't be word for word correct dialogue but it will be similar to what happened. Sorry this chapter is short, and extremely terrible I just wasn't feeling it when I was writing, I think the next one will be better.**

After the bird incident the Sheriff and his team showed up to assess what happened and get a few statements from students. There wasn't much to assess though, it was pretty east to tell what had happened, but the "why" part was the question everyone wanted to know the answer to.

Lydia stayed to give the sheriff her point of view on what happened, feeling super awkward considering she had given him a statement less than twelve hours ago. She was beginning to think that she was going to start looking suspicious, even if it was just animal death.

Allison's father had convinced them that it was completely ok and necessary that they take the rest of the day off and go home. After mystical animal disturbances for two days in a row, he wasn't too thrilled with the decision to come back to Beacon Hills.

"I'm going home." Lydia told Stiles as she collected her belongings from the floor and headed towards the door.

"Wait." Stiles grabbed her wrist and she turned back to him, he was staring in her eyes. "Be safe."

"I'll try." She said sincerely. "Thanks." She walked out of the room and waited for Allison to leave so she could get a ride home. Before they could leave someone came up to them in a panic.

"Where's Scott?" She asked, looking around like something was chasing her.

"He left." Lydia answered.

"Where did he go?"

"We don't know. Why do you want to know?" Allison asked, unsure of who this could be and if she posed a threat to Scott and the rest of the pack.

"It's important. Do you know where he is or not?" The girl tightly gripped both of the girls wrists.

"No." Allison responded.

"Ouch!" Lydia yelled after her. "I think she left a bruise." She, in fact, did leave a bruise on both of their arms.

"Alright, let's get out of here." Allison's dad said as he came from the other end of the hallway and both girls followed.

Later they discovered it, in full. They were unpacking Allison's new room and trying to decorate it as well. Allison was trying to decide on paint colors when she noticed that the bruise had formed some sort of pattern on each of their arms, seemingly corresponding even. The next night Allison dragged Lydia to a party she had overheard Stiles talking to Scott about, assuming they would be there and unable to avoid her and Lydia. But she called first.

"Hey I need to show you something." She burst out as soon as he picked up the phone, skipping the awkward greetings. Lydia could only hear what Allison was saying. _You have to see it; it's too difficult to explain. Where are you? Ok we'll be there in a minute._

"So we're meeting him and Stiles at this party?" Lydia questioned, raising an eyebrow like she so often did.

"Yes and we're going to show them whatever this is, and maybe it will be of some help. My dad told me that there were Alphas in town." Allison explained to her friend as she parked the car and they both got out, Lydia following Allison to a house that was radiating music. Scott was walking out of the house, solo.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Some girl was looking for you the other day. We didn't tell her anything but before she left, she grabbed our wrists and left these marks." Allison said uncovering her forearm to reveal a large bruise. "And Lydia has one too."

"We think they correspond somehow." Lydia explained as she uncovered her forearm and put it next to Allison's.

"I think it's something. I don't know what it means though." Scott said.

"Stiles is good at researching things, maybe he can help. We should show him too. Where is he?" Allison asked knowing Stiles liked to do research on the supernatural and he was actually half decent at it.

"Oh I think he went to the basement with some girl. Who kissed him." Lydia felt an unwelcome pang in her stomach. Stiles was with a girl, and she had kissed him. Hell no. Allison raised her eyebrow.

"Some girl he went to preschool with, I don't know her." The front door of the house opened to reveal Stiles.

"Hey did you see Heather by chance?" Stiles asked as he walked over to where Scott was standing with Allison and Lydia.

"No, wasn't she with you?"

"Uh yeah, but I uh…left for a minute. Maybe she just went somewhere else."

"Maybe."

"So what's going on?" He asked pointing to Allison and Lydia standing in front of them.

"They think some girl left some sort of a patterned bruise on them." Scott explained.

"And?"

"And…we think it might have something to do with the Alphas." Allison explained.

"The only way to really know is if we tell…" Stiles started.

"Derek." Scott finished his sentence and Allison closed her eyes as if to keep in her emotions.

"Alright, we can show him tomorrow." Allison said quietly, wishing this wasn't how it would have to be but she had expected it. "Come one Lydia, let's go." Both girls turned and walked back to Allison's car, ready for something else to entertain them for the night.


	6. Six

**Author's Note: I am so very sorry for that HORRIFIC last chapter. I don't know what happened, I just wasn't feeling it I guess, maybe because there weren't that many Stydia scenes for me to work with, and I'm not sure exactly how much its going to deviate from the show so that why it's hard for me to like "fill in" the gaps with fluff. But again I apologize for the shortness and the bad writing of it in general please forgive me and I hope this chapter is way better.**

A day had passed since Allison and Lydia had showed up at the party and showed Scott and Stiles the marks on their forearms. They had shown Derek in an empty classroom and he was unimpressed. Lydia could have cared less at what he was saying but Allison had worked herself up about the whole thing. Her and Derek defiantly didn't get along very well. After Derek had insulted the two best friends Lydia felt a jolt of warmth flow through her when Stiles did his best to defend the two's actions in previous months.

"Is he PMSing or is he always like that?" Lydia asked Stiles in a hushed tone as they all filed out of the room.

"No that's just good ole regular Derek." He responded whispering in her ear as they turned a corner into the hallway. "This is actually one of his more pleasant moods." His breath tickled her ear and she felt a surge of butterflies take off in her stomach. His proximity was almost overwhelming.

"It's quite pleasant to be in his presence, no?" She laughed after speaking with heavy sarcasm. Stiles liked that she was so well versed in the subject of sarcasm, she was so smart that it wasn't hard for her to master at all, Stiles had the same talent.

"Yep, that's Derek Hale for you." He said to her as they stopped in front of his next class.

"Well I have to get to class, I'll see you later." She said backing up slowly down the hallway.

"Yeah see you later." He waved, and she reciprocated before turning and strutting down the hallway and he watched until he couldn't see her any longer and then entered the classroom.

Lydia had gotten a ride home from her father who was in town but lived in a separate house form her and her mother. He drove her home and dropped her off, making sure she got in safely. Her mom would be home later with her car and then maybe she could go out and try to forget whatever craziness was plaguing her life. She grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and went upstairs. She set her school books out on her desk and did about an hour of homework when her mom called up saying that she had picked up a pizza on the way home. Lydia closed her books and packed them back into her bag and went downstairs. She sighed, pizza was so unhealthy but at least her mom had gotten a vegie lovers one.

"I picked your car up today."

"Awesome, I can finally drive to school again." She said after she took a bite of the triangle shaped food.

"But be careful ok, accidents seem to follow you or something." Her mother said, and she was kind of right. If only she knew the half of it.

"I'll be careful."

"Ok good." Mrs. Martin gave her daughter a weak smile. Lydia knew her mom felt bad about not being in her life all that much but she never really did anything about it. By this point in life it would be too hard for her to try to establish anything super close. Lydia wished her mom didn't think that way but she would just have to accept her relationship with her mom, whatever it was. As long as she knew her mom loved her she would be happy, because she knew how her mom was and nothing much would change.

"I thought you were out of town for the week?"

"I finished up early."

"Oh."

"I'm going to go in the office and just work on some stuff before going to bed. Yell if you need anything." Her mom said as she walked down the hallway to where her study was. Lydia rolled her eyes and went back to her room when she was done eating. She grabbed on eof her textbooks and began reading.

_It's dark. But something is chasing her. She can feel it, it's right behind her. Now it's grabbing her shoulder. And now it's wrapping a hand around her mouth. And she screams._

Lydia woke up screaming bloody murder for a good solid thirty seconds realizing she had awakened from another nightmare. Her mom didn't even hear anything, didn't come up to see if her daughter was okay. Nothing. Maybe it was all in her head after all. Her head was pounding though; she reached over and picked up an empty bottle of ibuprofen. Screw it. She made a split decision to go to the pharmacy. Maybe some fresh air would do her good and she missed driving her little blue car.

"Mom, I'm going out!" She yelled as she put on her favorite green coat and grabbed her bag. No response. She rolled her eyes remembering her mom's words an hour or so ago about yelling if she needed anything. She walked downstairs and into the kitchen writing a sticky note to her mother and then walking outside to her car. She readjusted everything to her liking and pulled out of her driveway en route to the closet pharmacy

It happened in a flash. All she remembered was being at her house but now she was at the community pool and she had no idea why. She was terrified, especially considering the fact that she had no idea in hell how she got there. Curiosity got the better of her as she exited her Toyota. Her hands were shaking, something wasn't right.

"Hello? Anyone here? H-h-hello?" No response. Nothing. She got closer, walking through the entrance at a slow pace unsure of what was there. Something was in the water, something heavy and human looking. "Please don't be a dead body, please don't be a dead body, please don't be a dead body." She whispered to herself, tears welling up in her eyes. She reached into the pool and grabbed the object, it was just a dummy. She sighed with relief and breathed easy for seven whole seconds. She noticed ruby liquid on her pale skin and looked to find its source. That was defiantly a dead body in the lifeguard chair. She let out another infamous scream.

She called 911 within a few seconds of piecing together what she had just seen. She was hysterical. Being alone with a dead body wasn't making her feel peaceful at all. The police were on their way but she needed to tell someone who could actually make her feel comfortable and someone who might know something about it.

"Stiles." She asked, her voice shaking, he had picked up on the first ring.

"Lydia what's wrong are you hurt?"

"No, I'm not but someone else is."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm here at the Beacon Hills community pool and there is a freaking dead body sitting in the lifeguard's chair." She practically screamed at him, tears were running down her cheeks.

"Alright, I'll be there in two minutes. Promise. Just stay calm ok, deep breaths." He tried to coach her through the cellular device.

"Okay." She took a breath. "You better be here in two minutes." She said hanging up and turning away from the body as she tried to figure out what exactly she was going to tell the police when they arrived. Finally she heard a car pull up and prayed that it wouldn't be the murdered or a moon crazed werewolf.

"LYDIA! Lydia, are you alright?"

"Yeah, but he's not." She answered him as soon as was standing right next to her, his hands on her arms, trying to look her in the eye.

"Oh my god."

"I know. Should we…call Scott or someone?"

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." As he walked closer to the body and pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Scott's number. The conversation was brief and they basically established that it was unlikely to have been Boyd or Cora. Sirens suddenly became audible in the near background.

"You called the cops before you called me?"

"I'm supposed to call you first if I find a dead body?"

"YES!"

"Well I didn't ok and I'll remember that for next time. Right now I'm worried about what I'm going to tell them."

"Well tell them the truth. How did you get here?" He asked as the sirens got even closer.

"That's the thing, I don't really know." She bit her lip.

"Tell them that and as much of the truth as possible. It's easier to remember the truth." He informed her as he stood closer to her putting a hand lightly on one of her arms. She was glad she had called him suddenly; being around him did make her feel much more comfortable.

"Alright." She said quietly as the police force came to them and began the investigation of the crime scene.


	7. Seven

**Author's Note: Thankful for all of the nice reviews and for encouraging me to keep writing. I feel weird writing this story because I feel like I'm just rewriting the episodes so to me it doesn't feel that good. Do you guys think it's too much like the episode? Also, why do you guys think you like this story? Just curious, feedback helps me. So I'm going to continue this story the best I can, I'll probably only update once a week. If you haven't already, check out my other fic ****_The Collection,_**** I update that more often. Thanks for reading guys!**

"…and then I looked up and that's when I saw the body." Lydia told Stiles' father, the Sheriff, about what had happened at the Beacon Hills public pool.

"And then you called Stiles and then us, right?"

"No, I called you first." She said as she wrapped her arms around her chest, trying to keep herself warm. She wasn't cold from the air more because she was standing a few feet from a dead body she had just discovered.

"He got here first?"

"Yeah."

"Ok…so then he showed up and saw the body too. You guys didn't touch it did you? Or tamper with anything, just the blood on your hand from when you touched the edge of the pool?"

"Yes, just the…blood."

"And are you sure you don't know how you got here?"

"No idea." She whispered.

"Alright, I think that's all I need. Are you ok to drive home?"

"Yeah, I can do that."

"Okay but I'm going to give you a police escort, just as a precaution of course."

"Of course. Thanks." She said smiling weakly and walking back to her car where there was now an ambulance and many police cars.

"Lydia, wait up." Lydia heard call out as she walked by. He jogged over from where he was giving his statement to the police to where she was exiting the pool complex.

"What?" She asked as she kept walking towards her car, him right on her heels.

"Are you alright."

"Fabulous." She seethed in her popular girl sarcasm. He made one of his "annoyed with sarcasm that isn't his own" faces.

"Well let me drive you home or something." He offered.

"No." She answered, reaching her car, unlocking and opening the door.

"Okay but at least let me follow you home, to make sure you get in safely."

"Fine." She said after a few seconds, she knew had the police escort but she remembered what Allison had told her about that one night at the police station with Matt and Jackson. Not that Stiles was any more capable of protecting her than a police officer, but she knew he cared more about her safety and he knew more about the evil things out there. Plus something about him made her feel safe. She secretly had wanted to take him up on the previous offer but she didn't want to give him the wrong idea or give herself an opportunity to do something, considering she still wasn't sure about her feelings for him.

"Oh-okay." He said making sure she was in her blue Toyota before shutting the door and running to get into his Jeep. He backed up his Jeep first then Lydia did and went in front of him. The police escort followed her and Stiles followed behind. The officer didn't worry; they recognized the blue Jeep and knew there would be no harm to come from it. It was just always in the wrong place at the wrong time. He followed her up her somewhat of a windy driveway, pulling in behind her. As soon as the vehicle was in park he exited it and went to her.

"Are you still okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine. Here hold this though." She said handing him her bright pink purse, she thought he would protest but he didn't even seem to care. She swung her body out of the car, locked and closed the door behind her.

"You sure, I mean you just found a dead body." He asked as she took her keys out of her purse and opened the front door, entering the foyer and shedding her coat off.

"I said I was fine didn't I?" She looked at his eyes, nothing but concern filling them. She felt bad being so cold to him when he cared so much. But it's the way it came out, she was fine, a little shook up, but things had been worse for her. If she kept dwelling on it though, it would get far worse.

"Well I know I just wanted to make sure. I would say it doesn't happen every day, but it kind of does in this town." He was unfortunately right. She started up the stairs and walked into her room. But it seemed like there was another reason why he wanted to follow her home, other than the fact that he liked her. Something in him seemed determined to get an answer to a question that wasn't 'are you alright?'

"You didn't have to follow me home though." She flicked on the light and went to her closet to hang up her green coat.

"I just wanted to make sure you got in okay." He admitted, finally setting her purse down on her desk. Her heart softened a little bit, he really just wanted to make sure she was alright. He was such a caring person, especially to her, and it had made her feel better that he had been there. But she didn't want him to know it made her feel good that he cared and she liked teasing him, especially since it wasn't in a mean-spirited way that it used to be. She considered him to be a friend now, and teasing with friends was purely for enjoyment.

"I did have a police escort." She said walking over to her desk chair and taking a seat, facing him.

"I know the inner workings of that force, okay? They aren't nearly as reliable as you would think." He had a valid point, he knew all about the Beacon Hills police force.

"Well you didn't have to follow me into my room?" She countered, forcing a straight face.

"Well I didn't…" he paused, realizing what she had just said and blushed lightly. "well…uh...I… yeah…I don't have an answer for that. I can leave." He offered, backing up to the doorway, looking like he really didn't want to leave.

"Are you really going to go without asking me the question you've been dying to ask me?" The words slipped out of her mouth before she even really realized what she was saying. He looked at her with shock on his face, like she had just read his mind, be he tried to cover it up with his words.

"Que…I'm not…I haven't been dying to ask you anything. No questions here for Stiles. Nothing." He stammered and wondered how she knew. Of course he could always lie and say he's been dying to ask her out on a date for the past eight years of his life, because that was also true.

She sighed as he watched her. She wondered how she knew he wanted to ask what was going on and how she just ended up where a dead body was. And why she had called him. She didn't know how she knew he wanted to ask her these things but she knew he did. Like they were intuitive with each other, almost like knowing what the other was thinking, like a certain bond. And these were the same questions she wanted answers herself to.

"I can see it on your face." She did see it on his face and she almost longed to know how she could. He stepped back into the room, curious as to what she was going to say next.

"Maybe my face just has a naturally interrogatory expression?" He offered.

"Well your interrogatory expression is getting on my nerves. I wish you would just ask me." She admitted. He sighed, knowing that she was right, he did want to know. "The truth is" she began afraid to admit it to herself, let alone him. But if she had to tell anyone she was glad with it being him, she trusted him for some reason more than she trusted most people. "I don't know how I found that body." Her voice cracked, tears she couldn't control welling in her green eyes. "I didn't…even know where I was until I got out of the car." She admitted looking up at him waiting for some kind of response.

"But the last time something like this happened…" He began, not wanting to bring up the dark past she had been through; she looked away not wanting to face judgment.

"I know." She paused and allowed herself to look back at him. If couldn't understand there was no hope for her trying to figure this out. "Derek's uncle."

"Peter." It stung to hear his name being uttered out of Stiles' lips. She whimpered at the sound of his name. He no longer haunted her dreams but the memory was real. If she had seen him walking across the street he himself wouldn't bother her but rather the things she had seen when he had been around. She more hated the dreams, then she did him.

"Oh my god, what's wrong with me." She blinked and a tear streamed down her cheek.

"Nothing is wrong with you Lydia." Stiles said sitting down on her bed, facing her in her desk chair and resting a hand on her shoulder. "You're perfect." He said making his crush on her still evident, she smile weakly at the compliment.

"I swear, I don't know anything. I don't know how I got there or why it was me who found it." She said wiping the water from her cheek with a tissue Stiles had grabbed off of her nightstand.

"Well I'll help you figure it out. And if it happens again…"

"It's not going to happen again." She said, not wanting to imagine finding another dead and bloody body.

"Well if you do…"

"But I won't." She insisted.

"But if it does."

"It won't." He was cute, but he was annoying sometimes.

"Lydia you don't know that."

"Stiles." She warned, not wanting to hear any more of this nonsense.

"Ok but if you do" she opened her mouth but he put his finger to her mouth to silence her. Her eyes narrowed at him in an attempt to show her continuing resistance. "if you do, I'll be here to help you figure it out. If its three in the morning, call me."

"Fine, I guess." She tried to sound annoyed but she was a little bit relieved to have someone that would be there for her when she needed, she liked having that at her disposal. She only wished she could use him for her haunting loneliness as well. But she figured it wouldn't take much to change it to that. "But why you?"

"Because you can't just tell anyone about the nightmares of the supernatural you're having, can you?" He joked.

"No, but I mean why…_you_." She asked, looking at him straight in the eyes their faces were both serious and only a foot away from each other, it was intense to say the least.

"I care about you. Were friends, isn't that what friends are supposed to do?" her heart sank a little at the word _friends_, maybe she had been hoping for a slightly different answer.

"Stop their town's werewolf population from killing people?" She asked, raising her eyebrow and flashing a small smirk.

"Pretty much." He answered and they both laughed the ridiculous but unfortunately real truth, faces still close together and heat radiating between the two of them. Stiles' phone buzzed though and he took it out and read it. "It's…Scott's mom, I should take this." He said standing up and walking to the corner of her room, Lydia nodded and patiently waited.

"She said she wants me to come down to the hospital and look at the body they found."

"Why?"

"Werewolf things I guess."

"Oh. I'll go with you." She said standing up and reaching for her purse.

"No. Stay here. I got it. You've been through enough tonight." He said putting his hand up to stop her from going any further.

"Fine" she huffed "but let me know what you find out."

"I will, I promise." He said going to the doorway. "Get some rest okay?"

"I'll try."

"And call me if you need anything at all."

"Okay, goodnight Stiles." She said walking to the doorway.

"Stay safe Lydia." He said disappearing down the hallway as she shut the door and closed her eyes trying to figure out what had just happened as she prayed for a peaceful night's sleep.


	8. Eight

**Author's Note: I'm back with a new chapter, sorry for the delay. THANK YOU all for understanding and for your kind words. So I have this chapter which I think turned out pretty well, and I'm not sure when the next one will be up, but hopefully soon. Thanks for reading.**

**Disclaimer: Once again I do not own Teen Wolf in any way shape or form. Just using dialogue from the show and incorporating it into my story.**

A few days had passed since the incident at the Beacon Hills public pool. Lydia had read in the news that two other girls, two young girls, had been found, murdered the same night. She wondered if it was a coincidence or something else, something more serious. As Lydia walked toward her locker she noticed someone was standing next to it, like he was waiting for her.

"Um you're kind of blocking my locker." She told the muscular boy.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He said sliding over so she could get into her locker. "I'm Aiden by the way." He stuck out his hand but Lydia ignored it as she opened her locker and reapplied a coat of her lipstick.

"Hm. I'm Lydia." She said putting the cap on the lipstick and she rummaged through her locker.

"I don't mean to be forward but I was kind of wondering if you would maybe want to go out with me sometime?" Lydia paused, thinking for a moment. She wasn't interested in this guy, and normally she would have just said that, but she was working on being a better person.

"I don't think so, I'm super busy." She grabbed a book and stuffed it into her bag.

"With what?"

"Homework, projects, lab write ups." She did have homework, but none of the other things. And her homework wouldn't take her long at all, she had little of it and it was never a challenge.

"Well we could go on a…study date?" He proposed as she slammed the locker door and leaned up against it.

"I don't need help studying; I have a perfect five point oh. But maybe some other time." She smiled at him, the type of smile you use when you don't want to be rude. He knew the conversation wasn't going any further.

"Um, alright then." He said pushing off the locker and walking in the opposite way she was intending on moving in. He was cute but not what she was looking for or what she needed. She had too much else going on. And she was already interested in someone else, someone else who she could talk to without sounding completely crazy. Someone who wouldn't judge her, even if she had did something horribly wrong.

She left her stance and walked down the hallway, noticing Isaac and Scott trying to look inconspicuous as they tried to see what she was doing. She walked past them, head held high, wondering why they were staring in the first place.

"Lydia, wait up! Lydia!" She heard the all too familiar voice call out to her as she rounded a corner. Her stomach dropped when she heard the familiar tone of a certain boy.

"What is it Stiles?" She tried her best to sound annoyed but it came out nicer then she had expected. He had finally caught up to her and she looked him over, he looked good, she had to admit. A fitted blue button up with a tee shirt and khaki pants on, it worked on him, she decided. He had stepped up from his weird baggy tee shirts, the new look was working in his favor.

"Something is seriously going on. Did you hear about that senior on the cross country team? Scott said he vanished from the clinic last night and then bam! He ends up dead and tied to a tree this morning."

"And this has to do with me…why?"

"Because," he lowered his voice "well, because you found that body the other night."

"We're not supposed to talk about that remember." She said through gritted teeth, turning and giving him a look that could kill.

"Right sorry. But I went to see the bodies at the morgue after I left your house the other night. And I came to a conclusion that the three who died a few nights ago were…" He stopped in the hallway and in the middle of his sentence.

"They were…" She said as she halted and turned around to face him. He was closer behind her than she thought; their faces were maybe only a foot apart.

"Virgins." He said with extreme intensity, that she didn't understand, until she realized that he was probably a virgin.

"How do you know for sure that they were virgins?" She asked, now a little bit concerned for his well-being.

"Well the guy, the guy that you found, had a purity ring on. And I talked to one of the girl's girlfriends; she told me they were going to have sex for the first time the night she was taken."

"And what about the other girl, huh, how do you know she was a virgin?"

"Well I was actually friends with her since I was in pre-school. And the other night, that party you and Allison showed up at, it was hers. She was going to…we were…okay this is kind of embarrassing." He stammered, hoping Lydia would put two and two together. She didn't though, still in shock that Stiles had actually known her. "We went down to her basement and we were going to you know…" _Oh_ she was beginning to understand. "I had to go get something and when I came back she was gone. But I didn't think anything of it."

"So she was taken…and killed, and she was a virgin?" Lydia asked trying to get confirmation, even though her astonishment that if she hadn't been taken and killed, Stiles might not be a virgin anymore. For some reason the thought of someone else taking his virginity made her unreasonably annoyed. Jealousy seethed through her words, but she didn't think he noticed.

"Yes, yes, and yes." Lydia took a deep breath, trying to process, and headed back in the direction to her destination.

"But what about the other guy? The guy they found today?"

"What about him?" He asked, catching back up with her pace.

"Well is he a virgin too?"

"No."

"So why is he dead then? That doesn't exactly support your theory then does it?" She liked to prove him wrong but not necessarily now, because this was literally a life or death matter. But she didn't seem to see what she had to do with it or why she was responsible for it.

"I don't know but you know all about ancient cultures and sacrifices." The two of them were about to round another corner.

"You think they're sacrifices?" She scoffed.

"You know there's a temple in Calcutta where they used to sacrifice a child every day? That's a dead baby every day Lydia. 'Hey you want to know what today is?' IT'S DEAD BABY DAY! Because every day is dead baby day, YAY!" He said flustered with his hands flailing about, definitely forgot to take his Adderall. But it was kind of cute, she observed to herself.

"Okay but why are you telling me this again? What does that have to do with this particular situation?"

"Maybe these sacrifices have to do with the Alpha twins Scott has been dealing with."

"Alpha twins? You mean the twins are _Alphas_?" How could that be right? No wonder Aiden had tried to ask her out.

"Yeah you know Ethan and Aiden?"

"Well it's a good thing I turned him down." She mumbled just loud enough so he could barely hear.

"Uh, well…yeah." He stammered and scratched his head and tried to remember what he wanted to say next. "Anyway, so here's what I'm thinking though, maybe these murders are coming in threes."

"Threes?" She inquired.

"Just listen. Ancient people love things in threes, so maybe first, its three virgins. And then maybe it's three people with…little dogs." He didn't think that was the connection but Lydia could be connected in some way and she did have Prada. She paused again looking at him to figure out what he wasn't saying.

"Stiles I own a little dog…I am not getting rid of my dog." She wondered how he had narrowed it down to ,that. She didn't know, but she could tell that he was sure she had something to do with the murders and that he was trying to keep her as far away from killing as possible.

"Would you please get rid of your little dog?" He called after her once she started walking again. She wondered now how she had guessed what he was thinking correctly.

"No." She said firmly, with a smirk almost. He was genuinely concerned for her. And she was slowly realizing she cared for his as well, even down to which girl could have possibly taken his virginity. "Oh and you should know that you can't create a pattern with a single data point."

"Well what am I supposed to do? Wait for someone to die? Wait for them to wither up and die right in front of me?" She stopped again and looked at him; he looked like he was thinking about something a million miles away.

"Whiter?" He shook his head and snapped out of it.

"You…you know what I mean. Like die in a hideously awful, strangulating, head-bashing, throat cutting kind of way."

"Well maybe it's not your job." She spoke before she could speak, but it was logical what she was thinking. Why was he getting so worked up about this, after all they were really just teenagers with a bit of bad luck. And she and him were only human.

"Wha-what do you mean?"

"You said they were strangled right?" She asked putting a hand lightly on his surprisingly muscular chest, he nodded his head softly, noticing her perfectly manicured fingers on his chest. "That's a human thing to do. So I doubt that the _wolves_ did this or are completely responsible for this." He liked where she was going with this, because it was his theory earlier that it wasn't all done by the wolves.

"So?"

"So maybe we should leave this to someone human and stay out of it. We're just teenagers."

"You mean someone like my dad?"

"No Stiles, I mean your dad." She said lifting her hand off of his chest. "I'll see you later." She said turning around and walking into her classroom. She took her normal desk and watched through the doorway as he left. She took a deep breath and felt herself calm down. She was caught off guard by the conversation but the speaker was the one that had made her tense. That was something that was most unexpected. She was unsure about who was murdering people and she was unsure about her feelings. But she knew she had felt jealousy a few moments ago when she had heard Stiles had almost lost his virginity to some random girl she had never heard of. This was very unexpected indeed.


	9. Nine

Walking. Entering. Bell rings. Takes seat. Opens bag. Pulls out notebook. Pulls out a number two pencil. Music plays all around. Drawing. Drawing. Drawing. Absentmindedly drawing. Trees. A tree. The tree.

"Wow, that's like, really good." A voice came from behind her right shoulder.

"I know, right?" She replied without any thought, like a machine programmed to perform a function.

"You should be in art class." The voice suggested.

"Oh well…maybe." She considered as she drew the final lines of the picture.

"Since you're not in music." Suddenly her head turned as she finished the drawing. Her good friend Danny, was standing there and surrounding her were classmates, all with various types of instruments

"Fifteen minutes." A male voice from the other side of the room called out. Everyone began to gather up their things and leave the room. Lydia was thoroughly confused about everything at this point. Last she remembered, she was supposed to be somewhere on the other side of the school. Somewhere that had nothing to do with musical instruments or drawings of large trees.

"What?" She asked aloud, to Danny, trying to regain her bearings. "What's that?"

"Fifteen minute rule. If the teacher doesn't show up in the first fifteen minutes, we get to ditch." He explained before following the crowd of people out of the room.

This couldn't be good. After everyone exited she stood up and walked round the silent room. Beginning to feel nervous about why she was even on this side of the school. She took a glance around the empty room before laying her eye on the cell phone that was on top of the teacher's piano. She walked over to it and realized it was playing some sort of dead noise. Her curiosity got the better of her as she started the recording over again.

_"Recording piano, part three"_ the voice said before it was followed with music. It sounded pleasant, not something to listen to on a long car ride, but it was relaxing, and stimulating. Nothing out of the ordinary for a piano recording. She fast forwarded the song to see how long it continued before it hit the white noise sounding part. Suddenly a noise erupted from the phone, sending Lydia back a few steps, surprising her to say the least. Silence for a moment but then followed by cryptic chants that sounded like they were coming from all around her. It sounded like exactly what you would expect a group of natives somewhere to be chanting before a ritualistic sacrifice.

Upon making this connection in her genius mind she backed away slowly, almost paralyzed. But she knew she couldn't keep this to herself, or she may just end up dead next, and dying wasn't something she was planning on doing anytime soon. Through her fear she ran to the chair she had been sitting in and grabbed her phone from her bag, knowing exactly who she needed to share this information with. The only one who would probably whole heartedly believe her.

"Stiles!" She cried into the phone as soon as she heard that the ringing had stopped.

_"Listen, I'm kind of busy. Can't talk right now."_ He said, talking into the receiver. Wishing he didn't have to be so harsh with the girl he was totally crushing on, but she had already shot down his theory and he was somewhat annoyed.

"No wait, listen to me. It's about the sacrifices." She quickly explained, not wanting him to hang up. Just hearing his voice on the other end of the call calmed her tense body. And she knew the word _sacrifices_ would make him tune into what she had to say, if he was truly busy.

_"Wait, what?"_ Oh he was interested now.

"Stiles the music teacher is gone. I think it has to do with the sacrifices you were talking about earlier." She was giving him the "need to know" part of what was going on, she would explain the rest later.

_"Okay. Are you sure he's missing?" _His tone was serious, like he believed her but needed the confirmation. He could probably tell by her uneven breathing that something was up.

"Not just missing. Taken." She managed to explain through shallow breaths.

_"Alright, I'll be there in a few minutes. Just stay calm. And _safe_." _He emphasized the word safe, which made it clear that he did care and he did want to believe her. Lydia closed the piano case and winced as she saw a pool of blood, she fought a scream and headed for the door. She left the room and took a seat on a bench outside of the room and waited, not wanting to be in any enclosed space alone.

"Okay Lydia, were here. Show us what you found." Lydia heard Stiles say as he and Dr. Deaton made their way down the hallway towards the bench Lydia was perched on.

"Good, what took you so long?" She felt like crying it had been closer to ten minutes than a couple. She felt like she had been holding her breath waiting for him because when he got close she let out a deep exhale. Relief overcame her. For him as well, seeing that she was okay and unharmed.

"I had a free period, so I went to talk to Deaton. He's pretty well versed on all of this mythology stuff." Lydia decided to role with it, because, why wouldn't he be informed on ritual sacrifices.

"So how do you know he was taken?" Deaton asked. Lydia walked to the music room door and gestured for Stiles and Deaton to follow her.

"Here, listen to this. It starts out with him playing the piano and then something crashes onto the piano and it stops. But then you can hear…something else." She explained picking up the phone, pressing "play from beginning", and handing it to Deaton as Stiles began to rummage through the teacher's desk and belongings.

"Can we get a copy of this?" Deaton asked after listening to the recording for a few consecutive moments as he handed the device to her.

"Sure." She replied quietly as Stiles was impatiently tearing through the desk, looking for some sort of clue.

"Hey doc, any help would be, you know, helpful." Lydia watched Stiles and tried her best not to observe how muscular his forearms looked with his rolled up plaid shirt, but they were much hard to miss. For a second she caught herself wondering what it would be like to be held by them. She shook her head when she realized what she was thinking and blamed it on whatever had gotten her to the room in the first place. She looked back down at the phone in her hand

"Each grouping of three would have its own purpose. Its own type of power." He took a few steps to where Stiles was digging though drawers. "Virgins, healers, philosophers, warriors…"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on a second." Stiles stopped Deaton, picking up a piece of paper. "Warrior…could that also be like a soldier?" He looked at Deaton for some sort of confirmation.

"Absolutely." With that Stiles held up a picture of the music teacher with his bride and uniform on his wedding day. Lydia walked over to where the two males were standing to get a better look at the picture.

"Kyle was in ROTC with Boyd." Stiles stated.

"Well that has to be it, that's the pattern." Deaton confirmed. "Where's Boyd?" Lydia's gear began to turn after seeing the picture.

"He's probably home by now, I'm going to try calling him." Stiles pulled out his cell phone and attempted to dial Boyd.

"Lydia." Deaton saw the look on her face, like she was thinking something no one else was even considering. "Something wrong?"

"No…it's just…I mean" she stumbled over the right words to say until finally all of the pieces came together. "I just thought of someone else with a military connection."

"Who?" Stiles asked, halting his dialing to Boyd's phone. He looked right at her, like there was nothing more important than the name she was about to give, which was probably true, but her heart fluttered a bit knowing his eyes were all focused on her.

"Um. Harris. Mr. Harris." She said struggling to get the name out as he looked at her with such intensity. She could tell it wasn't all from wondering who was about to die, there was something else there behind his hazel eyes.

"Would he still be here?" Deaton asked, unsure if he would stick around afterschool. The school day hadn't been over for more than a half an hour, there was a good chance he was still around running detention or grading papers.

"Probably. Let's go see." Stiles decided, making his way out of the classroom, Deaton and Lydia right behind them. His classroom was on the other side of the school so it took them a few minutes to reach their destination.

"Where is he?" Deaton asked as they approached the classroom and the three person team stepped inside.

"Not here. Maybe he was taken already." Stiles suggested as they began going though the desk and looking over the entire room.

"This is just one of many possibilities you know." Deaton said after a few moments of searching for a clue or something, yet again. "He could have simply left for the day."

"He wouldn't have left in the middle of grading paper and he would have left his briefcase." Stiles said holding up the briefcase as Lydia made her way to the desk, looking at the papers left there.

"What?" Deaton asked, noticing a confused look on both of their face now.

"This test is graded _R_" Stiles said holding up a paper with a red letter _R_.

"This one's an _H_" Lydia held up a paper herself, contributing to the "something isn't right here" theory. Deaton looked intrigued, grabbing the paper from their hands and arranging them as well as the other one's on the desk.

"You remember I told you in Gaelic, Druid is the word for wise oak?" Deaton asked, looking in the direction of Stiles.

"Yeah." He replied, looking straight at Lydia so see if she was understanding where things were going, she looked just as perplexed as he, nervous as well. The glance they shared was anxious and intense. But comforting, at least they both didn't know what was going on.

"If a Druid went down the wrong path, there was a word for that too. The wise oak could become a dark oak." He explained. "There's a Gaelic word for that as well. Darach." He said with emphasis.

"So you're saying what ever did this, is something bad. Or…evil." Lydia asked.

"Exactly that." Deaton confirmed. Stiles and Lydia shared another look, one of inquiry and instability. She looked concerned, scared maybe. He wished so badly that he could reach out and hug her, to let her know everything was going to be ok. Even if it wasn't. He wanted to be there to comfort and little did he know she wanted him to be her comfort, in a world that became for terrifying every day.

**A's N: The next two chapters will probably be weird because of the weird timeline of episode 305 but I have an idea on how to remedy that! Hope you liked this chapter. :)**


	10. Ten

**Author's Note: I would first like to apologize for being kind of late on the update. Also I want to apologize because this will be kind of a short chapter. I like writing this story; sometimes I just get really bored with it and don't feel like updating. I do plan to keep updating until I write everything from the season in it. But I am starting college in a week and I'm unsure of when I will be able to update this and my other story. So please just be patient. I uploaded a Stydia one shot the other day and I plan to do one more, so please check that out if you are waiting for an update. Sorry again but I hope you enjoy whatever I do to continue with this story.**

Another day had passed and on the bright side there hadn't been any more sacrifices that she or any of her friends knew of. No one had really alerted her of anything in the past twenty four hours, really. Either they were keeping things from her or nothing was going on. Or if something was going on, she probably wouldn't be able to help.

But right now she was completely bored out of her incredibly intelligent mind. Homework only distracted her for a short while and even that wasn't very stimulation to her genius level IQ. She decided she needed to do something, if nothing else to ease her persistent curiosity. She reached from her spot on the bed to grab the phone on the nightstand. She dialed and the phone rang one time before it was answered. No surprise there though, he always picked up on the first ring, for her and especially with all of the terrible things happening to her and this town.

"Hey what's up?"

"Oh you know nothing really."

"You didn't find another dead body did you Lydia?" He asked frantically, she could hear him overexcite himself, hearing a soft _crash_ in the background.

"No Stiles, I did not find another dead body." She seethed through gritted teeth.

"Okay, I was just checking. You never know what's going on in this town. Or with you."

"That's for sure."

"So why did you call then?" He asked with a somewhat nervous tone now, she smiled at that and imagined how cute he usually was when he was nervous. Though she didn't quite know why she was thinking him as "cute" in any circumstance.

"I was just wondering if you've figured anything out yet about this whole…Darach thing." She admitted to him finally, twirling a strand of hair with her free hand.

"No, nothing really, there isn't all that much to go on."

"Oh."

"But after talking with Deaton, I think we can confirm that whatever is killing people is a _Darach_, which is a type of Druid."

"A dark one, an evil one, correct?"

"That's what Deaton implied."

"Do you think he has anything to do with these…sacrifices and Druids?" She just wanted to make sure they were weighing all of the possible outcomes.

"I mean it's possible, he's always been secretive about these things."

"But do you think that he's in all of this, I mean he sure seems to know a lot about all of these things." She didn't completely trust Scott's boss, but she didn't distrust him. She just knew what she knew and she was basing things on the facts only she knew about.

"I don't know, he's weird about things. But nothing about him makes me think he has anything to do with it. I don't have any bad feelings about him or anything." Lydia smiled, Stiles and all of his cautious "bad feelings."

"Well I guess that he can't be too bad then." She chewed the inside of her cheek and wondered to herself when she started to listen to what Stiles said, and when she started to believe and trust what he said.

"I guess not."

"So where is Scott? Why aren't you helping him with werewolf stuff tonight?" She asked admiring her freshly manicured hand.

"Oh I don't know. He said he was going to go just stay at home for the night and try to stay out of trouble."  
"Do you think he's really staying out of trouble?"

"…No." He admitted, but he was kind of relieved he didn't have to tag along to any werewolf brawl tonight to stand around aimlessly and watch. His human skills were super unproductive when there were angry werewolves were around. Hopefully nothing major would happen, he was the one who usually had to help clean up the pack's mess.

"Why aren't you with him then?"

"He didn't ask me to come…besides I just get in the way anyway." Lydia pursed her lips, did he really think he was unnecessary.

"I doubt that."

"No I do, I can't even count how many times Scott has saved my ass."

"I'm sure you've done your fair share of saving his." He nodded internally at her positive accusation.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Don't write yourself off Stiles. You're valuable to him and the pack." Lydia wasn't so good at giving heartwarming compliments to just anyone. He knew that was a something sincere that she meant, so he decided not to argue with her.

"Alright. Thanks?" He was unsure if that was an appropriate response or not.

"You're welcome. You sounded like you could use some kind words."

"Yeah well its much appreciated."

"Hey are you going to the cross country meet tomorrow?"

"Uh yeah I am, I actually need to be getting to bed so I can be up to catch the bus."

"Oh alright."

"Yeah." He really didn't want to end the phone call but he knew it wouldn't do him any good to stay up any later then it was.

"Well good luck on your meet."

"Oh…well…thanks."

"Good night." She smiled into the speaker.

"Good night Lydia." He said right before she hung up the phone and crawled into her bed under her duvet. The smile was still etched on her pale face. She always felt happier, more at ease, when she talked to him, like she was young again. But she felt mature when she talked to him, like she was talking to someone intellectually equal to her. And that was a decent change. He was funny but super serious and smart when he needed to be. He always left her happy, he always left her smiling. And she decided that she would soon have to do something about that. Because with each day that passed and they spoke, she felt closer to him, and the closer she was, the more of him she wanted to know about. This was dangerous, but she knew all about being in danger.


	11. Eleven

**Author's Note: Okay first thing's first, I AM SO, SO, SO SORRY for not updating this that often (if anyone actually cares lol). It's just this story can be difficult, or time consuming to write because I'm trying to make it correlate with the show. I always like it when I'm finished but when I write it I get kind of frustrated with it. But I'm (somewhat) settled into college and I can't promise that the chapters will be long or good or even frequent but I do want to finish it! I will be updating this and ****_The Collection_**** as best I can in between everything going on. I hope you are patient with me and enjoy what I do present you guys with.**

Lydia awoke from a dreamless sleep on Saturday morning due to her cell phone chiming and vibrating on her nightstand. She moaned into her pillow and struggled to open her eyes. When she finally did she reached over her bed and grabbed the phone and answered the phone without even looking to see who was interrupting her beauty sleep.

"Hello?" She greeted before letting out a loud yawn.

"Lydia get up, and be ready to leave in a half hour." It was Allison.

"What are you talking about? I'm not going anywhere its…" she glanced at the alarm clock "seven in the morning. On a Saturday, I might add."

"Lydia there's a cross country meet this weekend, we have to go."

"What? No we don't. No one watches or cheers for cross country, Allison. Now let me go back to sleep."

"No that's not it. Something happened last night Lydia, we have to go." Allison's tone conveyed something serious had occurred, probably while she was fast asleep in her bed, having a somewhat relaxing slumber, for once.

"What do you mean?"

"There was a big…confrontation last night, between Derek's pack and the Alpha pack."

"Is everyone okay." Lydia answered to let her know that she was still listening.

"Derek's dead."

"Oh my god."

"I just…I have to go to make sure Scott's okay."

"Why wouldn't he be okay though?" If Scott wasn't going to be okay, did that mean that Stiles as in danger too? His safety was beginning to really affect the way she assessed things now. He was important to her now, and that terrified her.

"Well he got hurt last night and Ethan is going on the trip too, nothing can happen Lydia nothing." Allison explained, Lydia concurred that something still lingered between the two of them, something neither would probably admit to themselves or anyone.

"Will Stiles be okay?" She blurted out and instantly regretted it "I mean he is only human after all." She added trying to make it seem less…weird.

"I can't say for sure that anyone will be okay, but I think we need to go. Please will you go with me?" Allison asked, Lydia weighed the decision in her head for a moment, but ultimately decided based on her feeling for one of the cross country runners, un-admittedly of course.

"Fine. But you owe me." She said hanging up her phone. Slowly she rolled over in bed, sat up, and threw the covers off of herself. She rushed to the closet to find something to wear and proceeded in her usual wake-up routine.

Eventually Allison had arrived at her house and they drove to the school to wait for the bust to depart. Lydia watched for the familiar blue Jeep, seeing it pull up after they had been sitting in the parking lot for a few minutes. She couldn't tear her eyes away from him as he pulled his lanky, yet newly muscular, body from the pale blue vehicle. Of course he was wearing one of his infamous sweatshirts and, this one red to be exact, but it was him. He looked sort of adorable in the outfit, with his duffel bag slung across his toned chest. At least all of this werewolf madness hadn't changed him completely. Some things would always be the same, or familiar. She held her breath as Aiden dropped his brother off near the bus. Finally she watched everyone load onto the bus and the two girls followed the yellow vehicle at an appropriate distance for the next few hours.

They tried to keep the conversation light, but Lydia did make Allison explain to her, in great detail, what had happened the night before. Lydia was glad that she hadn't known about it sooner, she was, for once, glad she was relatively uninvolved. She was also relieved that Stiles was unharmed in the night's madness. She counted herself lucky that they had both been home safely, on the phone with one another.

She tried not to stare but it was virtually impossible. Scott and Stiles had sat right in the very back of the bus. Lydia couldn't help but force herself to strain her eyes and look at him, even if it was the back of his head. He turned around the first time, probably just to admire the view, but when he took a second glance she had a feeling that he saw them. She did her best to hide her face but it was somewhat impossible, especially for Allison. At least the Toytoa's windshield was somewhat tinted, maybe impairing the view a little bit. Soon though as the sky got cloudier and as they were a few cars behind the bus, Lydia's phone rang and her heart stuttered for a second as she read the caller ID.

"Hey Stiles…" she remembered that he wasn't supposed to know they were following the big yellow bus. "just about to walk into a movie actually."

"Yeah I know you guys are right behind us, put me on speaker." She knew he knew, and really it was ridiculous to try to pretend that he no idea. Lydia was always on Stiles' radar, he knew if she was in his three mile vicinity.

"Yeah okay." She said hitting the button for speaker phone and smiling internally that he had called her instead of Allison.

"Okay, Scott's still hurt." Stiles explained, Lydia didn't know much about werewolves but she knew that the healed relatively fast.

"What do you mean _still_? Do you mean he's not healing?" Allison asked looking concerned.

"No, he's not healing. Actually I think he's getting worse, the blood its turning like this gross black color."

"Well what's wrong with him?" Lydia asked, she assumed something had happened the night before but she had just assumed he would be okay.

"What? What's wrong with him? Do I have a PhD in lycanthropy? How am I supposed to know that?" He replied, sarcasm heavy. Lydia rolled her eyes, if it had been anyone else she would have scolded them for their sass but it was Stiles. Stiles and sarcasm went together like peanut butter and jelly. And she knew he used sarcasm with the people he cared most about. Thinking about how much he used it with her, made her stomach churn with butterflies. Lydia and Stiles' dynamic was especially like that, they were similar in so many ways, and it kind of freaked her out sometimes. She shook her head and tried to keep her thoughts focused on figuring out what was wrong with Scott.

"We need to get him off the bus." Allison said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"And take him, where? A hostpital?" Lydia asked looking around at the desolate wasteland around the vehicle, while also making reference to his werewolf biology.

"Yeah, if he's dying." How did Allison know for sure though? "Stiles, there's a rest area about a mile up. Tell the coach to pull over."

"Yeah, I've been trying." Lydia could detect the annoyance in Stiles' voice.

"Reason with him." Allison demanded.

"Reason with him? Have you met this guy?" Stiles challenged. Lydia knew how Finstock could be; it wouldn't be an easy task. Stiles was flustered; he was trying to do the right thing. Lydia giggled to herself, knowing that he could be cute when he was frustrated. And it was really cute when it was all her fault. Unfortunately this was something way more serious.

**AN: This was supposed to be a bit longer but it's been awhile since I updated so I decided to give you guys this! Hope you like it and come back for more! (Which will hopefully be soon)**


End file.
